On the road again

He’s really doing it. He really is doing more rallies, even though the election is over – because that’s where he gets the instant gratification of people cheering him right in his face. It’s all he wants, along with the many many opportunities to boost his profits.

Donald Trump will once more feel the love that unexpectedly propelled him to victory over Hillary Clinton three weeks ago with a so-called ‘Thank You Tour’ of public appearances starting with a giant rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday night.

While there is so far no published tour schedule, the director of Mr Trump’s advance planning team, George Gigicos, has said that that the president-elect will be traveling “obviously to the states that we won and the swing states we flipped over”.

This…isn’t a thing. This isn’t something presidents do right after they are elected. They have too much other stuff to do, for one thing, and it’s probably a tad too obviously self-gratifying for people with an ounce of adult awareness. It takes a case of narcissism as severe as Trump’s to think this is an ok and reasonable thing for a president-elect to do.

While some will see it as Mr Trump looking to indulge in a victory lap around the country, Mr Gigicos insisted that it was about giving thanks to those voters who helped him on his way to his Electoral College victory on 8 November, against the expectations of nearly all the main polling organisations and of the Clinton campaign as well.

Yeah that doesn’t change anything, because “giving thanks” isn’t part of the routine. It’s like when the local public radio station thanks me for listening – I don’t do it as a favor, I do it when and because there’s something I want to hear. But even the local public radio station doesn’t set up rallies to thank the listeners.

Certainly it is an unusual project. Mr Trump already has a full plate completing his choices for his cabinet and other top positions in Washington and keeping his transition from descending into chaos, as it has already threatened to in recent days, not least the tug of war that has erupted over his courtship of Mitt Romney as a possible Secretary of State.

And learning the basics of the job, and indeed learning the basics of American history and world affairs. Oh he has a lot he could usefully be doing.

And even if Mr Trump believes he can spare the time to return to the hustings even though the election is over, it is unclear who would be paying the costs of renting spaces as large as the US Bank Arena and covering all the other associated costs of major rallies.

I’m sure he’ll just send us the bill.

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